An emotional gut check can leave you feeling like you want to react in all kinds of ways. I just received some disappointing news and I felt angry, frustrated, unheard, dismissed, and then NEUTRAL.

How can bad news be met with a neutral response?

Because “news” isn’t good or bad. Okay, the stuff on TV is mostly drivel and you’re tuning in to things that are aimed to fire you up and/or confirm your biases. Beyond the media’s biased slant on events in the world, anything you see or hear is simply information. 

ANYTHING.

This might be unpopular thinking. So try it on for a moment – 

A major deal fell through? That’s neutral information. It’s disappointing for a moment, and then, it’s information you can use to make your next move.

A medical diagnosis? It’s neutral information. It’s alarming at first. And then, you use that information to make your next move. 

...

A whirlwind swept through my world. As I continue to say yes to opportunities placed in front of me, the direction shifts just a bit. The North Star – the guiding light for leaning into or letting go of the opportunities is my vivid vision. Does this get me closer to or further from my big goals and dreams?

As it turns out, one of the opportunities has forced me to live big time into the lessons I teach. This is big: 

YOU MUST GIVE UP WHO YOU ARE AND HOW YOU DO THE THINGS YOU DO

IN ORDER TO BECOME WHO YOU NEED TO BE TO DO AND HAVE THE THINGS YOU SAID YOU WANTED

But… but… I like who I am! 

That’s cool, I’m using who I have become as a lever to my next iteration. As my friends have begun to look toward retirement, I’ve revamped my business to have an even greater impact in the world. It’s all go. And it’s all NOW.

I was debating giving up the Wednesdays With Wayne blog for a while. Did you know that THIS...

Last week I shared that I went on a cruise through the Panama Canal. When you’re on a cruise, you come into port and have made choices about excursions. While in Punt Arenas, Costa Rica, we were on an excursion that included a boat tour for looking at local wildlife and a bus ride out to the Macaw Sanctuary. 

The part of the trip that took us by bus to the Macaw Sanctuary deviated from the plan as our bus came to a stand-still in heavy traffic on a two lane road in the middle of nowhere. I mean, it was Costa Rica; there just wasn’t a lot around us. 

Picture this: My wife and I were probably the youngest on the bus. There were 28 other people who had pushed into their late 60s, many in their 70s, and a few in their 80s. We’re on a bus. We’re at a standstill in traffic. We’re not getting closer to seeing the Macaw Sanctuary. 30 minutes pass. 

We’re told that there was an accident and that it should be cleared...

I cruised through the Panama Canal a couple of months ago. It’s a remarkable feat of engineering, saving almost a week of travel by lifting boats through locks into manmade lakes and onto locks. We traveled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We traveled under the Bridge of The Americas, connecting north and south American land masses. A bridge! Connecting north and south American land masses. 

That was all cool.

Getting great meals that accommodated dietary needs was amazing.

Most special was being at sea. I’ve always had an affinity for the ocean. I haven’t felt comfortable learning to scuba dive, nor am I a great swimmer. And still, the ocean seems to talk to me. And I hear it, deep inside of me.

Sea days on a cruise are those that you’re, well, at sea. There’s no port. Nor is there any land for as far as the eye can see. To me, that’s why we cruise. We could’ve flown from port to port more efficiently. The...

It’s odd. Themes come in waves for me and blog posts come from my noticing. Recently, I’ve been asked A LOT about how I work with my clients. “When you work with an individual client, a corporate client, or a group, where do you start? And are they all the same?”

It’s a GREAT question because the answer just might serve you as you dream bigger and climb to your next great next.

My logo for Exponential Success has a torch with three Vs in it. There are also three mountains in the background which, when inverted, make three Vs. And that’s where I start when I work with anyone, individual or corporate, who wants to leap to Exponential Success.

Values: Identify them for yourself. Look at what they were, what they are, and most important, what they need to become for you to grow into the person who owns your Exponential Success.

Vision: Take your values and build a vivid picture of what you want. What you really, really,...

This is going to be unpopular.

There’s such a big wave of, “you’ve got to take care of yourself and the only way to do that is to say No.” 

While “no” is a complete sentence, the skill needed to take care of yourself isn’t about using that word. It’s about discernment.

We’ve seen the pendulum swing too far back to “say No to everything.” 

One of my sayings is that you can’t give what you don’t have. So if you’re running on fumes, you have nothing left to give anyone else. That doesn’t mean you say no to everything. It means you focus on what’s going to get you closer to what you want.

THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT AND MOST PEOPLE MISS IT – You get more of what you focus on! 

It’s that simple. Feeling overwhelmed by your calendar? Stare at your calendar and see how that makes you feel. 

(Hint: it makes you feel more overwhelmed.)

What would it mean to have everything you wanted? 

Think about that for a second. Most people wish for things but never let themselves truly desire. “Oh, it’d be nice to have a ____.” Fill in the blank. A what? Or a who? Or a where?

What would happen if we leaned into the desires we had? 

And what holds us back from doing so?

Those are two very big questions.

Let’s start with what holds us back. 

What holds us back from pursuing or even entertaining our true desires? It’s simple, early training, guilt, and shame. We’re taught to “be realistic,” and we’re told that we “don’t really need that,” whatever that is. We’re told not to be greedy. And we’re told to save because spending on frivolous things is, well, frivolous. 

And whatever your desire is, it might be frivolous to someone else. And it’s YOUR desire. Like the clothes in your closet are YOUR clothes, someone else...

I jumped on my Peloton treadmill this morning and found myself disappointed. I wanted the leader to push me more. It’s an odd thing to think about those coaching or pushing me, to know there’s more in me and to dig for it, encouraging me to dig for it.

We want our coaches to encourage us to dig deeper and in doing so, to envision (not just imagine or hope for) an amazing future just ahead.

Can you imagine Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, or any of the Kansas City Chiefs saying that they just wanted to be coddled by their coach. “Just stop pushing me and be a nice cheerleader” would never come out of their mouths. Instead, a level of trust is built and the dynamic is, “Bring Out My Best!”

Push me past the point of my potential.

That’s what we want from our coaches. You might be at the point in your life (or your week, for that matter) where you just want to take it easy for a moment. That’s cool. Even the best coaches know...

Sometimes, we get to the end of a month (or year) and say, “Oh my goodness, how did that happen? Time sure flew by!” And I was going to start this Wednesdays With Wayne blog with something like, “Don’t look now, but…!”

And that’s not the message I want to give you. The message this week is to remind you that YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE and that means that you are also in control of your calendar.

Did you have big plans for Quarter One of this year? 

Did you make those plans happen, or did you let them die out as unfulfilled dreams? 

I used to over-commit and admittedly, I sometimes still do. And when that happens, I  don’t negotiate with my goals. I take control of my calendar.

Here are some tips for you as we head into Q2 of this year:

• Look at your calendar for the next week, five weeks (yes, into the next month), and twelve weeks (taking you to the end of the quarter). 
• What did...

Here’s something that I shared this in my first book, Choosing Your Power: Many years ago, I found myself in deep overwhelm. I had a really hard time trying to juggle a job, grad school, and relationships. Though this was many years ago, what turned up for me was a simple statement that snapped me out of overwhelm-thinking.

My fortune said:

  Decisions Terminate Panic

I taped that to my computer monitor. It’s not something I had seen before, nor have I seen it since. It was the perfect three-word sentence to get me focused and I’ve relied on it a lot over the decades from when it first showed up for me. 

Here’s something to keep in mind. It’s an interesting concept: Most stress is caused by not making decisions when we need to. 

Re-read that line to yourself for a moment. 

If you think about any of the stress in your life in the past, you could have approached the situation differently by getting...